Report on the Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum

From http://iagua.es/2011/05/cronica-del-ii-foro-hispano-chino-del-agua/ (in Spanish), with special thanks to Alejandro Maceira Rozados, owner and webmaster at iAgua.es

In April 19th, the Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum was held in Nanjing, China, as one of the activities of the ongoing collaboration agreement between Spain and China on water resources management since 1999, when the Memorandum of Understanding was signed.  The First Spanish-Chinese Water Forum was held in Dongying, as part of the Yellow River Forum.

The Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum was opened by the Spanish Secretary of State for the Rural Environment and Water, Mr. Josep Puxeu, together with Vice Minister of Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Hu Siyi. Among the participants there were 20 representatives of Chinese public organizations (from the Ministry of Water Resources, from several research centers and from the Water Resources Comissions of rivers Yangtze, Yellow, Huai, Hai and Taihu Lake), plus 12 Spanish representatives (the General Director of Water Resources, Mrs. Marta Morén, staff from the Spanish Ministry of Environment, from the Ebro River Agency and from Spanish water companies).

The forum was arranged as a seminar that included 4 theme areas and each of them had a presentation by a representative of each country. These theme areas were:

Irrigation: The Chinese representatives explained the challenges posed by the need to produce enough food for the huge population of the country and to increase the revenues of farmers. Priorities on this field will be the construction of high-efficiency systems and the development of water-saving projects. Despite the fact that most of the irrigation is still done by canals and pipelines, microirrigation is steadily increasing in the recent years. The Spanish representatives presented what had been done for the modernization of irrigation schemes in Spain.

Dam safety: The representative of the Chinese Dam Safety Control Center explained the long history of dams in China, showing the big number of dams in the country (544 big ones, 3,259 medium-sized ones and 83,348 small ones) and how its management is done. Despite the fact that in recent years the management of dam safety has improved, Chinese representatives still acknowleged that there is still a lot to do in fields such as automatic monitoring, inspection, emergency management and technology implementation. The representative of the Ebro River Agency explained how these issues are tackled in the Ebro river basin and the software tool GEISER was presented.

Flooding risks and drought management: The Chinese representatives explained which were the main areas prone to flooding and drought and disclosed their own flood control projects. In turn, the Spanish representatives presented the SAIH (Automatic System for Hydrological Information) and the SAD (Decision Support System) tools.

Technologies for water treatment, water reuse and desalination in Spain: This area was covered only by the Spanish representatives, which presented information related to drinking water treatment, desalination, wastewater treatment and water recycling in Spain.

In the subsequent debate, Chinese representatives stated their interest for desalination projects in Spain, what is treated wastewater used for and what are the quality requirements, the management of biosolids from wastewater treatment plants, the management of dams and the policy of costs and prices of water. Both delegations expressed their interest in having a more intense cooperation in water management issues in the future.

The Second Spanish-Chinese Water Forum was held as part of the Fourth Yangtze River Forum, which had 400 attendants and in which the main challenges of the Yangtze river basin were analyzed, as the third longest river in the world and the fourth largest basin. The Spanish Secretary of State for the Rural Environment and Water, Mr. Josep Puxeu, explained the similarities between China and Spain concerning water resources management. He also explained the basic principles of Spanish water public administration and the experience on water resources management at basin level.

The Forum also had 5 workshops that dealt with the following subjects: integrated water resources management at basin level; control of river flows and use of riparian areas; climate change; ecological protection and restoration; and entrepreneurial compromise.

The Europe-China Water Platform conference was also held within the Yangtze River Forum. Since 2007, China and the European Union have a River Basin Management programme whose goal is to help the Ministry of Water Resources to implement water management at basin level, specially in the Yangtze and Yellow river basins, sharing the European Union's experience of the last 25 years. Due to the fact that the end of this programme is scheduled for 2012, both parts are already working on how this cooperation between China and the European Union can be continued in the future.

In this conference, Chinese delegates explained the challenges of their recently approved 12th Five-Year Plan, among which the main ones where those related to irrigation and to flooding, which can be worsened by climate change. The goal of the Chinese government is to double the investment in the water sector during the netx five years and the reconstruction of 40,000 small dams.

In the recent months, this programme has coordinated two visits of Chinese experts to Europe and two visits of European experts to the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which included a Spanish representative, Mr. Javier Fernández Pereira. Through these visits European experts could better understand water-related problems in China and identify the potential areas for further cooperation between the European Union and China.